Mobile City Council delays action on grant spending plan

Despite a looming deadline, the Mobile City Council on Tuesday delayed approval of a multimillion-dollar plan to spend federal grant money. (Press-Register/Mike Kittrell)

MOBILE, Ala. -- Despite a looming deadline, the Mobile City Council on Tuesday delayed approval of a multimillion-dollar plan to spend federal grant money.

The nearly $5 million at stake is a combination of Community Development Block Grants and other federal entitlements, which, in years past, have funded everything from homeless shelters to community centers.

A plan for spending the money is supposed to be submitted by March 15.

This is the first year that the city is handling the administration of the grant money directly.

One of the major criticisms that HUD levied against the board was its habit of missing application deadlines, Flo Kessler, a city attorney, told the council as members mulled shelving the grant's action plan.

Nevertheless, the council said it would not approve the plan until after it had been examined during a meeting of the council's Entitlements Committee set for March 9.

As a result, March 15, the day of the next scheduled City Council meeting and the federal deadline would be the earliest possible occasion for the council to pass the plan.

It's far from a given that the council will be able to come to an agreement that quickly.

The entitlement debates have been contentious in the past, as the council decided how to spend funding left over once Housing Board needs had been met.

Often, council members directed funds to their districts.

Now, however, Mayor Sam Jones and his legal staff seek to do away with the tradition of rotating some of the money between City Council districts. Jones has said that the rotation leads to politically motivated spending.

Kessler said in an interview that $500,000 of the money that might have gone into the district rotation system will now be used for an overhaul of Ann Street long sought be residents in the area.

Al Stokes, the mayor's chief of staff, said the street's drainage system is compromised all the way from near Interstate 10 to Spring Hill Avenue. He said the project is the most important infrastructure investment need in the eastern half of the city.